Subsidies for ensuring supplies are paid to maintain reliable food supplies for the population. These subsidies include:
a basic payment per hectare to maintain production capacity;
a payment per hectare to ensure an adequate proportion of open farmland with long-term cropping;
a graduated payment per hectare for degree of difficulty in upland and mountain areas to maintain production capacity under climatic difficulties.
In the case of grazing land, subsidies are only paid if the farm has a minimum number of cattle. The Federal Council shall stipulate minimum livestock numbers. It may decide that no minimum is necessary for cultivated meadows and areas of land reserved for promoting biodiversity, and set a lower basic payment for the latter.
Subsidies for ensuring supply may also be paid for land in other countries along the Swiss border under the terms of Article 43 paragraph a of the Customs Tariff Act of 18 March 20051.